LONDON, 24 January, 2015 − A private consortium formed to deal with Europe’s most difficult nuclear waste at a site in Britain’s beautiful Lake District has been sacked by the British government because not sufficient progress has been made in making it safe.Full Article

The two largest nuclear power utilities, Exelon and Entergy, aren’t the only ones looking for ratepayer bailouts for uneconomic power plants. Add Ohio’s FirstEnergy to the list, which is seeking subsidies that the Ohio Consumers Counsel puts at $3 Billion to keep its Davis-Besse reactor and some old, decrepit coal plants operating.FullnArticle

TAKOMA PARK, MD — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a Beyond Nuclear petition signed by 10,000 members of the U.S. public that called for the agency to suspend the operation of the country’s vulnerable “Fukushima” style nuclear reactors.Read more »

There has been a long history of state and rate payer handouts which have built the nuclear industry in the US. By one analysis, the total value of the nuclear subsidies is in excess of the wholesale value of the all the electricity which these reactors have produced. When states deregulated electricity production and distribution, the utilities requested and mostly received many billions in bail outs from rate payers or tax payers to pay for what were called its stranded assets. Nuclear subsides started much earlier than this with the Price Anderson act which requires mostly the state or rate payers to pay for insurance claims in the event of a serious nuclear accident.

The Mercury
Instead of relicensing Limerick Nuclear Plant, the NRC should have revoked its licenses to slow Limerick’s speed as it drives toward a potentially catastrophic nuclear cliff. But from the start, NRC bent its own rules and regulations so it could license Limerick, enabling PECO/Exelon to profit from Limerick’s nuclear energy at the public’s expense.Read more »

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Vote on Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Power:
No Need to Consider Local Environmental Threats of Mounting Radioactive Waste Stockpiles
When Licensing More Waste Production
Washington, DC – A fast-tracked vote by the four Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioners will allow resumption of licensing and relicensing of nuclear power reactors which make long-lasting deadly radioactive waste, reaffirming their denial that nuclear waste threatens this and all future generations. Today’s bid is to satisfy a federal court order two years ago which struck down the “Waste Confidence Rule,” a key regulation that streamlined the licensing process for nuclear power reactors by establishing the NRC’s “confidence” that its regulations would keep the waste “safe” until that day when it would be removed. The rule has formed the underpinning for all nuclear licensing in the US, since this highly concentrated and deadly radioactive waste is generated solely by nuclear power.Read more »

The eastern U.S. has the potential for larger and more damaging earthquakes than considered in previous maps and assessments. As one example, scientists learned a lot following the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Virginia in 2011. It was among the largest earthquakes to occur along the east coast in the last century, and helped determine that even larger events are possible. Estimates of earthquake hazards near Charleston, SC, have also gone up due to the assessment of earthquakes in the state.

Virginians the time is NOW to tell our Governor, Legislators and Dominion.” HELL NO to a third reactor at North Anna”!Details

*PUBLIC MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT Title: Notice of Forthcoming Meeting To Discuss Open Items And Emerging Issues For Combined License Application For Dominion’s North Anna Nuclear Plant, Unit 3 July 24, 2014, 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER Thirteen environmental organizations (collectively, Petitioners) separately filed in the
captioned proceedings a joint petition to suspend reactor licensing decisions pending the resolution of their February 18, 2014 petition for rulemaking.1 For the reasons set forth below,
we deny the suspension petitions and provide direction on other related requests.Link

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 28, 2014 – Two organizations that inexplicably are getting a pass from most news media outlets in the United States – Nuclear Matters and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) – are, in fact, de facto nuclear industry front groups that have failed entirely to be transparent about their financing, according to the independent watchdog group the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS).Read more »